Mass Customization

Thèmes abordés

Mass Customization, collaborative customization, customization, adaptative customization, personalization

Résumé du document

Living is more a question of what one spends than what one makes. Marcel Duchamp.
For a long time, our current society is based on consumption and capitalism. Firms aim at increasing and customers aim at increasing their well being.

Since The glorious thirty, companies used to practice the mass production and they only had to care about selling the biggest quantity they could. That's how, after the WWII, United State became the first world economic power thanks to the Ford's process which consist in standardized and low cost production. By saving-time techniques, U.S companies were able to product faster without spending more money.

Extraits

[...] Then, this method consists in helping him to identify the panels of offers that could satisfy his need and make customized product for him. The highest level of collaborative customization is called Pure Customization. This approach includes the customer in each step of the production, from the design to the delivery. It responds to the exact demand of each customer. For instance, optical firms have to use collaborative customization because each customer has different problem of eyesight and needs a totally personalized product. b. [...]

[...] Indeed, customers are sensitive to customized product but they are also concerned about its price. How companies deal with their customers' customization's need and cost of production? In a first part, we will define mass customization and talk about the origin. Then, we will define mass customization and explain the decisions factors. After that, we will study the variants of the theory with Pine's assumption. To finish, we will link this concept to operation management by studying mass customization at the company Hewlett Packard Origin of Mass Customization a. [...]

[...] Gilmore. Mass Customization: challenges and solutions Thorsten Blecker, Gerhard Friedrich The experience economy B. Joseph Pine, James H. [...]

[...] Then, companies can choose between four different approaches according to their business, their customers and costs of customization. To finish, companies should take advantage of new technology like internet in order to make the customization process available for everyone. Then, organizations which would succeed in using mass customization strategy will gain in customer loyalty, market leadership, productivity, and profitability. Sources Books: Information and management systems for product customization, Thorsten Blecker Mass Customization, the new frontier in business Competition, B. Joseph Pine, Stan Davis The Four Faces of Mass Customization, B. Joseph Pine, James H. [...]

[...] Cosmetic customization or personalization The theory of cosmetic customization relies on the presentation of the product. Customers will use this standard product the same way but each will be attract by it according to its presentation. Also, company can focus on the package to make any customer will think that the product was made especially for him. The cosmetic customization requires personalized advertising and a serious market study to target several categories of customers. For instance, Apple uses Cosmetic customization by proposing to engraved customer's IPod. [...]